Google NYC Tech Talks: Crisis Response @ Google

Google Tech Talk July 9, 2013 (more info below) Presented by Alice Bonhomme-Biais and Phil Coakley ABSTRACT When disaster strikes, people increasingly turn to the internet for information. Google Crisis Response helps ensure the right information is there in these times of need by building tools to collect and share emergency information, and by supporting first responders in using technology to help improve and save lives. In this presentation, we'll discuss three essential design principles that take into account uniquely pressing needs in crisis situations: - Simple: tools must be familiar and easy to use - Open: software must be open for systems to interoperate; data must be open for wide use - Standard: technology must be built on agreed-upon standards to enable information sharing and collaboration We'll take a technical look at three tools under active development by the Crisis Response team, each grown out of these principles: Crisis Map (http://www.google.org/crisisresponse/, Person Finder (http://www.google.org/personfinder/global/home.html?lang=en), and Public Alerts (http://www.google.org/crisisresponse/publicalerts/). About the speakers: Alice Bonhomme-Biais is a Staff Software Engineer at Google.org. She holds a PhD in distributed systems from ENS Lyon, France. In 2005, she joined Google's New York office to work on search quality for Google Maps. In 2010 she became one of the first software engineers on the Google Crisis Response Team. Phil Coakley is a Staff Software Engineer at Google.org in NYC, where he works on the Crisis Response Team building systems that make critical information more accessible in times of disaster. Prior to joining Google in 2007, he was involved in a network security startup in the NYC area. Phil has a bachelor's degree in computer science from Columbia University.